UK geographies
Subnational economic indicators are provided for a range of geographies, and not always the same ones. A brief outline of the major geographical units:
- NUTS hierarchy of geographies: a standardised geography for reporting to Eurostat. NUTS1 is English regions, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; NUTS2 is combinations of local authority areas; NUTS3 is single unitary local authority areas or combinations of smaller local authority areas (e.g. Bury, Oldham and Rochdale are combined as one NUTS3 area)
- Combined authorities e.g. Greater Manchester Combined Authority: also referred to as ‘city regions’ in some publications
- Local enterprise partnerships:
- Travel to Work Areas: TTWAs have been developed as approximations to self-contained labour markets reflecting areas where most people both live and work. At least 75% of an area’s resident workforce work in the area and at least 75% of the people who work in the area also live in the area.
Available aggregate economic indicators
Regional accounts:
- Gross Value Added: NUTS1-3, local authority, 1998-2006, broken down by broad industry. Workplace basis. Also GVA per head of resident population (but skewed by commuting patterns)
- Productivity: GVA per hour worked, NUTS1-NUTS3, city regions (combined authorities) and local enterprise partnerships, 2004-2016. Workplace basis. Data source: BRES, APS, LFS.
- Gross disposable household income per head: income after direct and indirect taxes and transfers. Covers primary income (from employment and assets) and secondary income (from govt redistribution). Estimates at current prices. NUTS 1 to local authority district. 1997-2016. Residence-based. Components broken down for all geographies.
- International trade: broken down to NUTS3 areas for 2016 for EU / non-EU imports and exports. Measured in
- Investment: gross fixed capital formation by region 2000-2014, but health warning over their reliability
- Government spending: Doesn’t appear to be readily available. Article produced on regional government expenditure for 1998
- Household expenditure: household final consumption expenditure. Data sources: Living Costs and Food Survey, Annual Business Survey. ‘Domestic’ expenditure is spending in a region; ‘national’ expenditure is spending by people who live in a region; the difference is the net inter-regional spending. Only ‘national’ expenditure is provided per head, as ‘domestic’ expenditure could be spent by ‘foreign’ visitors. Also provides a household savings ratio by deducing regional spending from regional gross income (varies from 1.5% to 14.5%, average 7%). Experimental estimates for 2016, regions only (released September 2018). Planning further developments.
Other useful indicators:
- Innovation: number of patents by geographical area available from Centre for Cities, 2015; also as open data from Intellectual Property Office. Available at postcode district level.
- Earnings: median / mean earnings available from ASHE 1997-2017. Excludes self-employed.
- Employment rates and employment by industry / occupation
- Regional Economic Analysis from ONS in 2012: industrial specialisation in local areas (using BRES, includes single summary indices of specialisation e.g. Krugman index; and identification of similarities between local authority areas); concentration and distribution of industries; public/private employment
- Low wage employment: [DETAILS]
- Graduate jobs indicator via Elias & Purcell or Green & Henseke, based upon Standard Occupational Classification 2010
- Some analysts also use an indicator for ‘knowledge-based industries’ based upon Standard Industrial Classification
Maps
Productivity - GVA per hour
Gross disposable household income per head
Trade